Nursing union warns understaffed services at UHG must be curtailed for safety

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has issued a warning that understaffed services at UHG must be curtailed for safety reasons.

It comes as UHG is the second most overcrowded hospital nationwide today with 43 people waiting on trolleys or along wards at the facility.

INMO officials met with senior hospital group management this week in a bid to establish which services the group planned to withdraw or curtail due to understaffing.

Union officials warned that Saolta management should be “gravely concerned” due to the high levels of missed care, delayed care and poor patient outcomes arising from the number of nursing and midwifery vacancies.

The INMO estimates that there are over 200 such vacancies in the Saolta group alone.

Anne Burke is Industrial Relations Officer for Galway – she says the situation cannot continue – for more on this story tune in to Galway Bay fm news on the hour…